Electric-lighting apparatus for railway-cars.



No. 740,461. v PATENTED OCT. 6, 1903.

R. M. NEWBOLD. ELECTRIC LIGHTING APPARATUS FOR RAILWAY CARS.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 15, 1902.

H0 MODEL. 2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

\ Maw??? j a mnawzpzzl PATENTED- OCT. 6, 1903; I R. M. NEWBOLD. ELECTRICLIGHTING APPARATUS FOR RAILWAY CARS.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 15, 1902.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

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' and a tension-adjusting idler 8.

has antifriction-rollers 9, mounted on an axle 10, which is swivellyconnected to an adjust- UNITED STATES Patented October 6, 1903.

PATE T OFFICE.

ROGER M. NEWBOLD, 0F BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA.

.SEEGIFIGATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 740,461, datedOctober 6, 1

Application filed November 15, 1902. Serial No. 131,835. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Beit known that I, ROGER M. NEWBoLD, a citizen of the United States,residing at Birmingham, Jeiferson county, State of Alabama, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Electric-LightingApparatus for Railway-0ars, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to systems for electrically lighting railway-carswherein a dynamo driven by an axle of the car supplies the current tothe lamps and to a'storage battery carried by said car and designed tosupply a current for the lamps when the car is stationary or movingbelow a certain speed.

It is the object of my invention toprovide an improved system of thischaracter wherein a simple and effective regulating device controls themagnetization of the dynamo, so that a current of unvarying voltage willbe supplied thereby to the lamps regardless of the speed of the car. Mysystem also comprises a novel mechanism for transmitting motion from theoar-axle to the dynamo-pulley, which is capable of taking up the maximumstretch of a driving-belt and keeping it to its work until worn out.

My invention consists in the particular construction and arrangement ofparts hereinafter described, and more particularly pointed out in theclaims, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a partof this specification, and in which-- Figure 1 shows a car fitted upwith my system and belt-tension-adj usting device. Fig. 2 is a detailview of the tension-idler. Fig. 3 is a detail view of the regulator.Fig. at is a diagrammatic View showing the circuits of,

the system in plan.

The dynamo 1 is suitably mounted on the truck 2 and supported on a levelwith the axle 3 of the car 4. A pulley 5 is keyed on the armature-shaftof said dynamo and-is driven'by a belt6, passing around said pulley 5, asplit pulley 7, keyed to the axle 3,

ing-rod 11. I provide a trackway for said rollers composed of two bentmetal strips 12, suitably secured to the truck and spaced apartsufficiently to permit the belt 6 to pass This idler up between them andover the idler, which ismounted on the inner bifurcated end of the rod11. The screw-threaded outer end of said rod, which extends forward ofthe truck through an opening in its end beam, carries a thumb-screw 15,which engages and adjusts the tension of a coiled spring 16 surroundingthe rod.

The provision of the trackway and antifriction-rollers makes an extendedadjustmentof the idler practical by enabling it to respond readily andaccurately to the influ ence of the coiled spring throughout its entiremovement over the track, which is sufficient to compensate the fullstretch of the driving-belt.

The dynamo 1, which is driven by these means, has an armature 35,commutator 36,

and cores 37 of the field-magnets, which are in a derived circuit fromthe dynamo-mains. The dynamo-leads are connected to posts 38 and 39 ofany suitable pole-changing device, which is preferably mechanicallyoperated from the armature-shaft. By this means the connections betweenthe dynamo and the main leads 17 and- 18 are reversed upon the reversalof direction of, rotation of the armature-shaft, so that the currentpasses always in the same direction through said leads. Treating thelead 17 as the positive main it passes from the binding post D at thedistribution-box through the coils of a solenoid 21 in series therewithto one of the contactlips of an automatic cut-out switch 24:. Thenegative main 18 leads to a binding-post D and then connects with thenegative wire 19 of the storage battery 20 at its binding-post B, fromwhich both leads continue to the lampcircnit. The positive battery-Wire22 leads to the binding-post B, where it branches, one side leading tothe lam p-circuit and the other .to one of the contact-lips of theswitch 2 1.

hen this switch is open, the dynamo-main 17 is broken at this point andthe lamps are being supplied with current from the battery,- with'whichthey are in circuit through the wires 22 and 19-. This switch will bemaintained open so long as the current generated by thedynamo is weakerthan that of the batteries, so that they will not discharge through thedynamo. When the dynamo is generating voltage greater than that of thebattery,

the switch will close and the lamps will then be supplied by the dynamoand the surplus current will be stored in the battery. If desired, anelectromagnetic cut-out switch may be used, in which case one set ofmagnets are in a shunt across the mains 17 and 18, and the opposing setare in series with the positive battery-wire, both being suitably woundand connected upto operate in the usual manner to securely hold theswitch closed while the lamps are beingsupplied by the dynamo.

If no regulating device were interposed when the lamps are beingsupplied by the dynamo, it is evident that they would be subjected tovariations in current according to the speed at which the car isrunning. This difficulty is encountered in all single-battery systems ofthis character and requires the interposition of a regulator, which willsupply the lamps with a current of unvarying voltage, regardless of thespeed of the car and the generation of the dynamo. I efiect thisregulation by interposing resistances in the derived circuit 25,containing the field-coils of the dynamo, by means of the apparatusshown in detail in Fig. 3. The solenoid 21 is energized by thedynamo-mains and has its core 26 connected by a belt or other flexibleconnection to the upper convex face of a .curved plate or sector 27,bolted to the pivoted switchlever 28 forward of its pivotpoint. Thisplate curvesin an arc corresponding with that described by the movementof the switch-lever around its pivot and enables the core 26 to exert avertical pull on the lever at all points of its movement. Thefield-circuit 25 branches from the main 17 and, connecting to the lever28, runs forward thereon to a contact-point 41, from which it passesthrough a variable resistance, over which said contact-point moves, tothe coils of the dynamo and thence to the negative main 18. The solenoid21 being in the posi: tive dynamo-lead is affected by every variation inthe current and through its core 26 and the flexible connectiontherefrom to the lever it tends to move the latter over thecontact-plates of the several resistance-coils to increase or diminishthe magnetization of the field-cores. It is most essential, where anaccurate regulation is required,to provide means for counteracting orcounterbalancing the pull of the core 26, which will be not onlypositive and unvarying in its action, but also capable of standing therough usage to which it will necessarily be subjected on a railwaycar.With these ends in view I suspend from one end of lever 28 a weight 29,designed tocounterbalance the weight of the core 26 and provided with anumber of removable regulating-weights 30, which when added to weight 29are used to balance the system at any desired number of amperes at whichit is to be regulated. By varying the number of the weights 30 themagnetization of the fields may be built up more or less rapidly, as maybe desired, since by this means the number of amperes which the dynamomust be generating before the solenoid 21 will be sufficiently energizedto overcome the inertia of the counterbalance weight will be raised orlowered. Obviously, also, the balancing of the solenoid-core and theweight will make the regulator very sensitive to current variations andat the same time will overcome the tendency of the lever to oscillate orvibrate responsive to shakes and jolts, which would resultif eitherlargely overbalanced the other. If these counterbalance-weights bemounted rigidly on the lever 28, it is obvious that there must be avariation in the leverage which they exert on said lever as it swingsabove or below ahorizontal position, since the movement is in the arc ofa circle. The greatest accuracy being required for the successfulregulation of such systems, Ihave provided a device to overcome thisvariation. On the end of the lever 28 I mount a vertically-disposedplate or sector 31, curved to correspond with the arc of a circledescribed by said lever as a radius from its pivot as a center. To theconvex face of this plate I attach a flexible belt or chain 32 andsuspend therefrom the counterbalance-weights. I provide a suitableguide-rod 33 for said weights, which passes through guides 34 and servesto steady the weight in its vertical movements and prevent its swingingor jerking. Since the belt hangs from a curved plate of the characterdescribed, it is obvious that there will be no variation in its pullupon the lever and that its movement will always be in the same verticalline. By these means I secure a regulation which is simple, not liableto get out of repair, and sensitive to a variation of one ampere, forany variation in the magnetic force of the solenoid, caused by theincrease or diminution of the voltage generated by the dynamo, serves tomove the core and switchlever 28, connected therewith, and thus throw inor cut out resistances in the field-circuit.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The combination in a car-lighting system, of a dynamo having itsarmature mechanically rotated by the movement of a car, of a maincircuit, an electromagnet therein, a pivoted switch-lever moved by saidmagnet, circuit connections controlled by said switchlever for varyingthe magnetization of the dynamo according to the current in the maincircuit, a counterbalance weight for said switch-lever,and meansrestraining the movements of said weight to the same vertical line withrespect to said pivoted lever.

2. The combination in a car-lighting system, of a dynamo having itsarmature mechanically rotated by the movement of a car, of a maincircuit, a solenoid therein, a pivoted switch-lever moved by saidsolenoid, circuit connections controlled by said switchlever for varyingthe magnetization of the dynamo according to the current in the main ICCcircuit, counterbalance weights for said switch-lever comprising aweight to balance the solenoid-core, and a weight to balance the pull ofthe solenoid at any desired number of amperes at which the system is tobe regulated, and means restraining the movements of said weights to thesame vertical line with respect to said lever.

3. The combination in a car-lighting system, of a dynamo mechanicallydriven from the car-axle, a main circuit, a solenoid therein, aswitch-lever pivoted intermediate its ends which is moved by the core ofsaid solenoid, circuit connections for varying the magnetization of thedynamo according to the current in the main circuit,counterbalanceweights flexibly suspended from one end of said lever andmeans restraining the movements of the solenoid-core and thecounterbalance-weights to the same vertical lines with respect to thepivoted switch-lever, said weights being adapted to balance thesolenoidcore and the pull of the solenoid at any desired number of amperes at which the system is to be regulated. 4

4:. The combination in a car-lighting system, of an axle-driven dynamo,a main circuit, a separate circuit comprising the fieldcoils of thedynamo, a solenoid electrically connected with said main circuit and acore therefor, a switch-lever pivoted intermediate its ends and moved bysaid core, circuit connections for varying the magnetization of thedynamo according to the current in the main circuit, a curved platecarried by one end of said lever, a regulated counterbalance-weightflexibly suspended from said plate and adapted to balance the pull ofthe solenoid exerted on theother end of said lever, and means to guideand steady said weight in its movements.

5. The combination in a car-lighting system, of a dynamo having a shuntWound field, a main circuit, a solenoid therein and a core therefor, afield-circuit, a rheostat therein havinga pivoted switch-arm operated bysaid solenoid to vary the strength of the fields according to thecurrent in the main circuit,

sectors carried by said lever on each side of its pivotal point,flexible connections from the convex faces of said sectors, one of whichconnects to the solenoid-core, the other having suspended therefrom acounterbalanceweight, a guide-rod on which said Weight is mounted andsuitable guides therefor.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of twosubscribing witnesses.

ROGER M. NEWBOLD.

\Vitnesses:

R. D. JOHNSTON,

R. D. JOHNSTON, J r.

